Georgians urged not to go to hospital ERs for COVID testing

To help keep hospital emergency departments open to treat medical emergencies, individuals seeking COVID testing should not go to hospital emergency departments unless they are experiencing severe COVID-19 symptoms requiring urgent medical attention. Asymptomatic individuals or individuals with mild symptoms should find testing sites other than hospital emergency departments.

COVID-19 testing locations are available throughout Georgia and can be found on the Georgia Department of Public Health website at https://dph.georgia.gov/ covidtesting. DPH is working with its lab partners to expand testing hours and add testing sites; however, lines are expected to be long as thousands of Georgians want to get tested.

To help alleviate delays at testing sites, DPH urges people to register online before going to a DPH test site to help alleviate back-ups at test sites and to free up staff from doing registration paperwork so that they can do more testing. Register online at https://dph.georgia.gov/ covidtesting.

DPH officials say COVID vaccination is available statewide and is the best tool for ending this pandemic and reducing the overwhelming strain on the healthcare system and healthcare providers.

To find a COVID vaccination location, visit https://dph. georgia.gov/covid-vaccine.

Georgians aged 5 and older are eligible for vaccination. Georgians 16 and older are eligible for boosters six months after completing their primary vaccine series of either Moderna or Pfizer (only Pfizer is authorized for booster doses in 16- and 17-year-olds) and two months after their J&J vaccine.

Basic prevention measures — wearing a mask, physically distancing and washing hands frequently with soap and water — should also be followed to help prevent further spread of COVID and mitigate outbreaks of infection, especially in public settings.

For updates on COVID-19, follow @GaDPH and @GovKemp on Twitter and @ GaDPH and @GovKemp on Facebook.